A Plague of Flies

I had friends over one summer night several years ago. It was getting late and everyone was starting to talk about leaving and as a couple of them were starting to gather their things, something strange happened. I noticed a fly land on the wall opposite me. Then another, and another, and another...soon there were dozens of black flies on my yellow wall.

I sat frozen on the sofa, mortified. What could be drawing so many flies inside my house? Was I a lousy housekeeper? Worse, had something died in my wall?

If anyone else noticed, they didn't say anything. We all stood up as everyone gradually began to pick up their things and move towards the front door, still visiting. I breathed a sigh of relief as the last friend walked out and I headed back to the wall of flies. They were still there, and even as I took a newspaper and began to swat them, none flew away. It was as though they were drugged as I killed them, one by one, and occasionally two by two.

I never said anything about it to anyone until a couple of weeks later, as I was eating lunch with two coworkers and out of the blue, one of them asked, "Have either of you noticed anything strange with flies?"

The other two of us replied in unison, "You, too?"

We all lived several miles apart, yet we had each experienced the same thing, as a number of flies had come into our houses out of nowhere, landed a wall, and stayed there as though they were paralyzed while we swatted them. (Clearly all three of us would harm a fly. I'm sorry, but they carry nasty stuff and there were a LOT of them.) We laughed as one of the women told us she had called her husband in a panic, practically screaming into the phone, "You have to come home right now! There are flies in the house!"

All of us had been embarrassed about it, wondering what we had done to cause this plague of flies to descend on our homes. I still don't know what the deal was with those darn flies, but it just took one person to speak up and let us know that we weren't alone...someone else had faced the same thing.

How often do we carry something around inside that embarrasses us? How many times do we refuse to speak up because we think nobody else has the same problem? It just takes one person to start...

Blessings,
Margaret

Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. ~ I Thes. 5:11